Can not attending class really hurt you financially or otherwise? I am not referring to students who miss a class here and there. I am addressing students who do not do anything in a class for at least two or more weeks and (sometimes) counting. Attendance is connected to school loans and grants and, sometimes, scholarships. In other words, if you do not keep active in your classes, you can be hurt financially. Your bank balance may or may not be impacted, but your credit rating might be.
What I am about to write is very general. I am not in Financial Aid (FA), and every student’s FA arrangements are unique. I strongly encourage every student to chat with his or her financial advisor to totally understand how the financial aid process works. There is no way I can discuss all the issues related to the different patterns of loans, grants, and scholarships a particular student might receive. TALK TO YOUR FA ADVISOR. Is that subtle enough?
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People notice if you do not attend class
As an instructor, every term, I have students who start the class and then simply disappear. They do not respond to my emails nor do they complete any work. I am in the third week of an online class as I write this. This past weekend, a student of mine “appeared” for the first time. She posted some comments and submitted an assignment. Until this point in time, I never got responses to my emails to her.
Suddenly, she exhibited a flurry of activity and then, … silence. She submitted an assignment for the first unit which was only half completed. This does not convince me she has any intention of really becoming active in the course. I suspect, but have no way of knowing, that her education adviser contacted her and told her she would be withdrawn from the course at the end of this unit if she did not become more active.
If any of my suspicions are correct, this could hurt her in the long run. I suspect she knows that not attending class can hurt her, but she does not really understand how.
Most students who enroll in college receive some form of financial aid.
Most financial aid tends to have some connection with attendance and grades.
I suspect most students get told what I am about to write, but they either do not understand it, or they think it will not apply to them. Later, they are, or at least act as if they are, surprised when they learn that they are in debt.
Lenders do want their money back, even if you did not do anything in school
The government, and most other lenders, does not like to give students money only to have the students not attend class. This is a no-no. Now, lenders do realize that life happens, and there is frequently some fine print that indicates that money is going to be pro-rated. For example, if someone must drop out of school for some reason in the first three or four weeks, the student will only need to reimburse the lender for those few weeks. Let’s suppose, however, that a student manages to stay enrolled in the majority of the course but withdraws in the last quarter of the course. The student then owes the full amount of the financial aid for the entire term and their pay be other non-obvious penalties.
Let me use my current student as an example. This is fiction, as the term is not anywhere near completed, but an example, OK? Suppose my student follows this same pattern of doing something once every three or four weeks, then withdraws, or even stays on the rolls until the end of the course. She will fail, but she does owe the full amount of money to the lender. So, she will be in debt with nothing to show for it. In this case, not attending class can impact her bank balance and, possibly, her credit rating. Not attending class, then, can impact her for a long time if she has a hard time improving her credit rating.
She might decide to ignore the requests for payment. After all, she did ignore the requests to get active in the course, right? The problem, especially for government money, is that the government wants its money back.
Our government gets really irritated when it gives students money and the students do not repay the money. The government can add nasty messages to a person’s credit rating. A young person who thinks that the world will do her or his bidding may be surprised when she or he is denied a loan for a car or a house. Older students may think that they do not owe anything since they were not active in class.
Sorry. That is not how the process works.
If a student is enrolled in a class, AND if the student has received any FA, then the student owes someone.
If necessary, and you are the only one to decide that, withdraw from class
No school will tell you what I am about to write. I might even deny this if a school asks me, but, IF you discover that you might not be able to complete a term, contact your advisor and withdraw for that term. Your advisor will attempt to encourage you to remain enrolled. I understand that the possibility exists that you, as a student, could become active again. You, however, know your circumstances. If you suspect that you could not become active in your classes, withdraw. You might still owe money, but, provided the loan is set up this way AND you withdraw early in the term, you will not need to repay any money that you have not received. If you have not received any funds, you might not owe anyone anything.
Then again, given the current situation (I am writing this while the government shut-down continues), if you are in a second, or third, job, to get some of the money you are not getting for your federal job, you might think that the student loan money can help. Think long and hard about that. The money might be useful now, but do you want a government bill in your future?
The government will want its money returned. If you do not do it, the government has NO problem telling other financial entities that you did not repay the loan.
In other words, not repaying your school loans or grants can impact your credit rating.
If you are lucky, you have a good FA advisor who will explain all the tiny details. Before you do anything you might later regret, check with your FA advisor. Ask questions. Do not be afraid. You deserve the answers. You DO need to protect your credit rating, right?
If you are having study problems
You might find one or two of my other posts to be helpful.
Being a working parent and a student.
How to stop feeling overwhelmed.
A site from the Department of Education can also give you basic information.
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Valerie
Have you ever lost points on an assignment because you forgot to do something?
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Updated 18 July 2023